Attack on Golem
by Kazemiko
Summary: Ten years ago Flesh Golems appeared. The country of Loahtante created seven walled cities. Adventurers Guanyu, Sezassus, and Fukushu must get plans to the cities. Or die trying. Who is behind the Golems? Will our adventures survive to find out? Read to find out! Updated every other week.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: I don't happen to have a better name for this. I wish I did. The three main characters in this story are being "played" by my boyfriend, girlfriend, and I while our other girlfriend is the game master. The entire thing is a novelization of the game we are currently playing that began on Sunday, July 28th, 2019. I hope you like it. We [usually] play every other Saturday, and I will be writing, editing, and uploading the chapters as during the two weeks between each game. Please comment and let me know how you think our characters are doing, and anything they could have done differently. Fair warning, I actually have no idea what I'm doing half the time. _

**Chapter 1**

Liang Guanyu, Fukushu, and Sezassus Theis were all condemned to death. For what crimes not one of them would speak.

Ten years earlier dwarves built massive tiered walls around seven of the cities in the nation. Flesh Golems had started appearing everywhere. Slowly more and more cities and towns fell to these beasts. No one knew where they had come from or who was controlling them. As the population began to dwindle, the national council put into place measures to protect their people. Dwarves were asked to build huge walls around the largest cities of Loahtante, protecting what remained of them. Plans were now in place to connect the seven cities via underground roadways. As it so happened, the capital needed to move the plans to each of the six remaining cities and just so happened to have three prisoners that were not doing anything else beyond waiting to be executed.

"We have decided that instead of killing you outright, we would make you an offer." The chief magistrate said. "We have letters and maps that need to be moved to the six walled cities. You three are strong enough that we believe you would be able to get to each of these cities and deliver these maps so that the construction can begin on our underground system. What say you? Will you take the mission for the greater good or will you rot here for the rest of your days?"

There was silence at first. Each of them taking their time to think about it. Sezassus was the first to speak up.

"So...if we take this mission, and we succeed, what's in it for us?" Her eyes narrowed at the magistrate. "Well we still die at your hands upon our return?"

"We don't expect you to return."

"How then will you know whether we have succeeded or failed?" Sezassus narrowed her deep yellow eyes. There would be no way of telling that they had made it unless the roads were connected. The group would have to come back to the capital.

"Should you make it to each of the six remaining cities and deliver the plans, you will be pardoned for your crimes."

"If not?" Guanyu's tail flicked.

"It doesn't really matter, then, does it? If you fail, you will either have died on the road or the magistrate of the city you are in will execute you."

Guanyu blinked, "Well, I'm in. Die here in a week or die free out there at some unknown time? I'll take freedom."

"I will also take freedom," Fukushu concurred. He turned to face the magistrate, studying him and the guards around him for potential weaknesses. There was nothing he could see right away.

Sezassus looked around her, "What about recompense? We will need funds for supplies to travel between the cities. We do not survive on air and sunlight. We are not plants."

"Here." He handed the nagaji a bundle of scrolls. "There are six letters, six maps, and six vouchers. Hand one of each of these in at the magistrate's office in the cities as you reach them. The vouchers are worth five thousand gold pieces each. Do not lose them, you will not get more. You will get seven thousand each from me to begin your journey. Spend it wisely."

Sezassus took the bundle and put it in her satchel. She and the others were then lead to the gates of the city. Just outside them was a large crate and some items. Tethered not far were three horses. One familiar, the other two not.

"Beyond that gate are your things and your mounts. Good luck, prisoners, you'll need it." With that, the guards shoved the three through the gate and slammed it shut behind them, barely missing Guanyu's tail.

Sezassus pulled out the map of the country they had been given with the routes to each of the six walled cities they were to find, "It appears the nearest city to us is south-south east. We should be able to reach it in two days' time if we keep steady progress."

"Let's go." Guanyu shrugged. Fukushu and Sezassus mounted, Guanyu walked alongside his horse, preferring to be on his own feet and not someone else's. They turned the steeds to the southeast and started on their journey.

* * *

A few hours had passed. They had gone through many abandoned towns and villages. Some were more obviously destroyed over others. Buildings lay in ruin all over the place. Guanyu took note of these buildings, and how far apart they were. As far as they knew, the Golems were not as active during the day, but at night they were terrible. They would need shelter at night. Any stable hut they found in a village would do.

As they entered a wide meadow, Sezassus lifted her head, "Did either of you hear that?"

Guanyu looked up, "Hear what?"

"It sounded like dogs…" Her gaze shifted to the right. "Over there."

A pack of large dogs crested the horizon, barreling down upon the party. After a few seconds, they were close enough for the party to recognize them as Flesh Hounds. A construct similar to the Golem only slightly smaller and canine in nature.

"Well shit. We can't outrun them, and I don't want to charge. Let's let them bring the fight to us." Guanyu turned, reading himself for the fight that he knew was coming.

Sezassus dismounted, accidentally slapping the flank of her horse as she did, sending it careening off from the group. Two of the hounds broke from the pack and gave chase. The other nine continued toward the party. They prepared themselves for the fight.

Fukushu looked at the hounds coming and spurred Uma, steering her away from the party. Two of the hounds followed him. He lured them out into a wide arc. Fukushu turned and fired an arrow at the hounds. One was struck, but it hardly noticed the arrow now sticking from it's shoulder.

"The fuck are you doing?!" Guanyu yelped as two of the hounds came straight for him. In his panic, he went to swing his quarterstaff and lost his grip on it, accidentally flinging it at Sezassus. "Sorry. Horse man over there ditching us scared me. Can I have my stick back at your earliest convenience?"

The nagaji just rolled her eyes and nudged it out of her way. She drew her sword and looked around. She had five of the nine Flesh Hounds surrounding her. There was little way she would come out of this unscathed. She swung her wakizashi, missing entirely. Two of the hounds retaliated immediately, biting into her tough leather armor. She yowled in pain, dropping to one knee.

"DO SOMETHING MONKEY!"

"WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M DOING?! THE CHICKEN DANCE?!" Guanyu took stock of the hounds and snarled. He clenched his fists and took two swings at the hound nearest to him. The hounds, clearly not expecting to be punched in the face, took the brunt of both hits. Guanyu glowed momentarily with a somewhat ethereal light and punched again, missing by a hair. "Get that asshole to come back and help."

Then the two other party members realized what was happening. The oni-spawn was trying to goad the rest of the pack into chasing him in a circle. Giving them a way to go after the dogs. The oni-spawn samurai turned in the saddle and fired off an arrow at the hounds. It seemed entirely unfazed by the arrow now protruding from its chest. When that didn't work, Fukushu turned his mount and ran it behind the hounds. He tore an orb from his necklace as the two hounds came up behind the other seven and threw it, casting a level 5 Fireball spell as it exploded. Some of the dogs in the front were unhurt, but the majority caught fire on various patches of their fur.

One of the hounds thought Sezassus had been the one to attack, and attacked. The hound ripped into her side and Sezassus passed out almost immediately from the pure shock. Guanyu, in a fit of rage from seeing this, turned and slammed his fist into the side of the hound's head with everything he had. He reveled in the satisfying way his fist sunk into the flesh. The hound's head snapped to the side and it dropped onto the ground, dead. He growled low, aiming for another. This one had it's ribs collapsed in and it also fell.

The other five hounds turned to Guanyu. He had become a large threat to them. He stepped between the pack and Sezassus, not wanting the vile, dirty, dogs to have any more chances at hurting his new...friend? The hounds tried to bite him, but his training gave him an edge and he managed to get out of harm's way just barely in time.

"Hey, dickbag, will you help me here? We're floundering and you're basically unharmed and riding in circles. I could really use that katana of yours." Guanyu huffed, his breathing ragged from the force he was exerting to just hit these things. He fended off another attack from the hounds and sent two kicks to another, bringing it down. "I mean, I know I'm doing well for myself...but this would be so much faster if you joined in."

"Of course, small furry one."

"Hey! I'm not _that_ short. It's not my fault you two are unfairly tall." He turned back to the hounds. Of the eleven that came, six were dead, three were on fire, and two were still chasing the horse. Guanyu turned back to face the three remaining hounds, just in time to watch one's head go flying off as the blade of a katana passed through its neck. "Good shot."

"Thank you." Fukushu wheeled around and raised the sword for another attack. The hounds were now unsure as to which one they should go after. He gazed down from Uma into the mismatched eyes of the nearest hound.

Before the samurai went in for a second attack, Guanyu went for the nearest hound to him. He threw a punch with as much force as he could muster, shattering the side of the hound's head and bringing it down, "That's..." The vanara paused to count the corpses, "four for me."

"This is not a competition." Fukushu brought his katana down on the final hound, killing it almost instantly. He withdrew the blade, didn't even bother to wipe it off, and took off in the direction the horse that had run. Guanyu watched him leave, shaking his head. He ran to the fallen nagaji, who thankfully had at least stopped bleeding. He poured the vial he knew was a healing potion into the nagaji's parted lips. It did something, but not much. Guanyu called on his power as a monk and glowed for a brief moment, pressing his hand to Sezassus's chest. Slowly the nagaji's yellow eyes fluttered open.

"Oh good, you're not dead."

"Not yet, anyway." She sat up slowly and looked around. "Where did the demon go?"

"Presumably to get your horse." Guanyu set up some bundles from the packs on the remaining stallion. He leaned her against the pile and sat beside her. "So, you missed the best part of the battle. I was brilliant! My mighty fists took down four of those bastard dogs!"

"I see."

"How are you so terrible at battle?"

"I am not trained for direct combat. I am trained to take them out unawares. You and the demon are built for the kind of combat we did here." She closed her eyes, too tired to keep them open much longer. She could not believe that she had missed with every attack she had made. She could believe less the fact that she had passed out and spent almost the entire fight laying in the dirt. "Oh, your stick."

"Thanks." Guanyu put the staff back into the holster on the horse's saddle and sighed. If this was what awaited them barely a few hours into a two-day journey, they were doomed. They'd never make it to all six of the cities. They would die before they made it to the first one. He looked out over the field as they waited for Fukushu to return with the horses.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Sorry about the wait. It just took a while for me to remember the previous sessions and find my spontaneously lost notes. This is a combination of sessions 2 & 3. I hope you enjoy it~_

**Chapter 2**

Liang watched the fight going on just at the edge of his visual range. He and Sezassus had decided to stay behind for a while and catch their breath instead of rushing off to join the fight with the oni. Clearly the large red figure could hold their own against the hounds. The nagaji, however, would need someone with her just in case until they could get their hands on more healing potions. He pulled a small, black leather notebook from his satchel and opened it to a fresh page.

"What have you there?"

"This? It's a notebook I swiped from a guard. Blank." He turned it to show her. "I thought I'd write out what happened to us in this book. That way if we don't make it all the way, people will one day hopefully find this and have a record of the absolute idiocy of their governing system."

"Oh. Seems fair, I suppose. Did you do a lot of archival work for your village?"

"No. I was apprenticed to the orchard. I was going to be a fruit picker." He laughed, rubbing the back of his head.

Sezassus blinked, "How did you go from a fruit harvester in a village orchard to a monk arrested for murder in the capital city?"

"I broke into the local monastery, trashed it, killed the guard, and stole a necklace. In my defense, I hadn't meant to kill the guard. He wasn't supposed to be in there at the time. I had messed up my time table and he was back from his duties elsewhere..."

"What the hell?! How did you manage this? I thought you were supposed to be intelligent or at least not clumsy!"

"I don't know. Bad luck I guess. Whole clan seems cursed with it." He held out his hand. "Name's Guanyu by the way. Liang Guanyu. You are...?"

"Sezassus Theis." She shook his hand lightly. Noises caught their attention and they turned back to watch the demon off on the horizon. Liang stood and shielded his eyes. If he didn't know any better, he would think that there was a horse coming toward him quite quickly.

He got out of the way just as the horse came galloping over to them, clearly hurt and fatigued. He watches Sezassus stand and deftly grab the reins, jumping onto the horses back. He'd not known that ninja nagaji could be so capable when it came to horse riding. He turned, noting that two Flesh Hounds were on the tail of the oni and his horse. Not knowing what else to do, Liang jumped up and ran forward to help.

* line *

The vanara snarled, swinging wildly at the Flesh Hounds. He missed with every attack he made, but it was enough to distract them for the oni-spawn to actually land several well placed hits and bring the remaining dogs down.

"I'm just going to say...I did bad because I was not angry and because they were not on fire..." Liang sighed.

"You tried."

"Yep." He extended his hand to the bright red samurai astride the horse. "Liang Guanyu."

"Fukushu." The oni-spawn didn't even bother to shake the monkey's hand, or even look at it. He continued back toward the rest of the horses. Liang followed along behind him, wondering what they were going to do next.

After checking their map, they realized that they were still just a few too many hours outside of the next city. They looked at one another and decided that perhaps locating the nearest abandoned village to bed down for the night would be the best plan.

The motley group made their way into an abandoned village and looked around for the safest part of the village they could sleep in for the evening. They found an old barn that was still pretty sound and decided to bed there for the night.

"Alright. How are we doing watch tonight?" Liang looked at the others. "I say Sezassus and I take first and last. We only have like, twilight vision. I can't see in the dark like the demon here can. What do you guys think?"

"Sounds like a plan to us." Sezassus nodded her head. Over the course of the last few hours of travel, she had grown to hate the monkey moderately less than she did at the start, especially after he had saved her.

"As you all wish. I will take the guard in the darkest of night."

"Could you also do me a favor and get my horse bedded down for the night?" Liang asked, head tilted to the side. He hopped into the hayloft and leaned his head toward the oni. "I don't know how."

"You have a horse and you do not know how to care for it properly?"

Liang chittered, "I was given a horse when we left the city. I came from the forests of Tian Xia. We rarely see anything above a small pony, and most of us Vanara do not know how to ride. We move through the trees. So no, I don't know how to properly care for the animal."

"I see." Sezassus sighed and took her horse over to Fukushu. "I, unfortunately, also do not know how to care for the horse. I do not know why they gave us horses when we left the city, but I am very much unskilled in animal husbandry."

"I see. You two decide among yourselves which one of you is going to take first watch and which one will take third while I dress down the horses. Perhaps before we sleep I will give you each a lesson in equestrian care and handling."

Guanyu didn't hear a word of it, he was already up the ladder and into the hayloft where he found the door they would push the hay bales from. _This will make an excellent lookout for tonight…_

"Hey! Snake butt! You get first watch. I'm beat. Wake me up when it's my turn." Guanyu promptly curled into a ball in the hay and passed out. He didn't hear the others coming up the ladder into the loft.

* line *

Sezassus nodded and took up her post beside the small window-like opening in the wall. From there she had a very good vantage point. She checked as the light was beginning to fade and though she could see some movement along the edge of the forest, there wasn't much noticeable yet.

As dusk slowly fell, she noted that the motion in the forest was moving closer to them. There were definitely a few of those hell beasts padding around in the dry grasses and she could just make out Golems near them. It would appear that most fell in the three to five meter range, large, but not overbearing.

Then she saw it. A colossal Golem. Easily twenty-five meters or more. It cleared the tops of some of the trees around it, maneuvering almost preternaturally easily through the brush. This Golem was entirely unlike the others. This monstrosity had four arms and seemed to make no distinction between humanoids and animals. She watched in horror as it tore its way through several woodland creatures, gaze never leaving the path ahead.

"Gods above and below..." She put her hand over her mouth and slowly crept away from the window to wake Fukushu for his turn at guard. Sezassus told him of what she saw and curled in the furthest corner from where the window was, hoping to not see the Golem in her sleep.

* line *

Nothing else happened in the night that they noted beyond the four-armed golem rampaging through the trees and farms. They packed their belongings as quickly as they could manage and made toward the next city on the map, a city called Larkas.

Upon arrival, they noted quickly the surprise on the guards. Not only had a small band of adventurers traveled from one city to another, they had survived the journey. There was no way.

"We are sent here from Valkinas to the north. We need to see your mayor." Sezassus dipped her head in greeting to the guards at the gate. "The longer you dally, the longer it will take us to deliver our message."

There was murmuring from the tower before the gates opened.

"Prove your identities," a guard said. They each handed over the paper they were given with their identification information on it. The guard glanced down, and handed them back when he noted the seal of the Valkinian mayoral office. "You may enter. Wait on the other side. We'll have someone take you to the mayor's office."

"Sir." They stood together, quietly, waiting for the guards to take them to the magistrate's office so they could hand off their paperwork.

"Do you think they will believe we really are from Valkinas?" Liang asked, fidgeting with the end of his tail. He didn't really want to go back to jail again, though he knew running was out of the option, they would be able to catch him before he got far in the city.

To their surprise, a woman came forward. She introduced herself as the mayor of Larkas and took the papers from them. The mayor turned around and looked over the forms that they had. She checked the official seal of the Valkinas mayor and nodded. It was all proper.

"Yes. This is all as it should be." She tucked the papers into a portfolio by her side. "For your service to Larkas and the country at large, you will hereby each be given your dues of five thousand gold pieces and a token."

"What's the token for?" Liang turned his over in his hand a few times, trying to sort out what the images and symbols on it meant. "What do I do with it?"

"That token is good for one night in one of the local brothels. All of them take it, so you can choose whichever you would like." She waved the three off, stepping back into the office and closing her door.

"I guess that's that, then. What shall we do now?"

"I don't know about you, but I'm going to get something to eat and maybe a bath." Fukushu put his coin into the Vanaran's hand. "Find another who would use this. I have no interest in relations at the moment."

"Oh, uh, okay." He put the coin in his pocket, figuring someone can use it. "Hey, Sezzy, let's go to the tavern. I bet there's something interesting happening there."

They walked down a wide, cobblestone passageway. Clearly the people inside the walls were protected and well off. They passed several shops along their way selling all manners of wares from pots and pans to flaming swords and a few ioun stones that Liang could see floating in lazy circles around the head of a shop attendant.

At the end of the road, raucous laughter and cheers could be heard. Sezassus pushed open the doors and was assaulted immediately by the pungent odor of pickled rat brains.  
"Do you think it's some sort of contest?" Liang asked, watching the people stuff their mouths full of the little brains on plates. "I would like to join! It looks like fun."

"We have another contestant for the next round!" A man shouted from the emcee's table. "What about you, miss? Will you be joining in on the game as well?"

"May I sample your brains first? Find out if I like them?"

"Nope. Rules state that only contestants in the brain eating contest may actually eat the brains."

"Fine. I will enter." She rolled up her sleeves and came forward.

The emcee grinned, "Right. One gold a piece to enter. Winner takes all." He motioned to a chest sitting on the table. It was filled with the gold pieces of everyone entered into the contest. When the last person had spewed their brains all over the table, the gold chest was handed over. "Now then, anyone participating in this round is asked to place their gold piece in the chest. Each piece will be matched by the tavern. Who is in?"

Liang tossed his coin in, "ME!"

"I'll join." Sezassus put her coin in. Slowly the chest filled with participants of various races.

The last, and least likely, a halfling who looked as though he couldn't have weighed more than forty pounds at best. He tossed his coin into the chest and sat beside Liang. He gave a cursory nod to the Vanara.

The emcee rang a little bell and plates of pickled rat brains were set in front of each of them. Sezassus tried, but after only a few of them, she choked and spat them all over the table.

"That's one contestant down. Let's see how the others are doing." He turned and gestured to the rest. One by one the other contestants fell or bowed out. Until only Liang and the halfling remained. They watched in fascinated horror as Liang shoveled handful after handful of the brains into his mouth, barely pausing to chew them as they just slid down. Suddenly his eyes grew wide. Something had gone wrong. He blinked and then vomited brain all over the table. "And that's the last. It looks like Kleine is the winner."

"Hey! I thought that the standard was how many we could eat, not not throwing up."

"Different strokes for different folks. Here we just count it if you keep the food down." He grinned. The emcee gave the gold trunk to Kleine.

"No hard feelings?"

"None at all..." Liang dug the brothel coin from his pocket, "Here a consolation prize from me. I don't need two of them. Probably won't be in the city after tomorrow."

"Thanks?"

"Welcome." Liang finished the plate of brains at his own pace. "What else is there to do around here?"

Kleine thought about it, "There's the pit out back."

"Pit?"

"Here, I'll show you." He stood, taking his ale, and walked through a back door that Liang had not noticed earlier. Sezassus followed shortly behind them. "This is where they do the zombie fights."

"What is a-?" He blinked. There were two zombies standing in a four foot deep pit. They were milling about aimlessly from what he could see. One of the zombies had a red patch painted on it's head, and the other had a blue spot. "What are the colors for?"

"Bets." He pointed to another head laying down by a pile of what looked like brain matter. "That one was the green zombie. He didn't make it."

"OI! Stop talking." An obviously drunken man stumbled over his words, sloshing his stein in their direction. "Some 'v us 're tryin' to watch the fight."

"What fight? Those two aren't even shambling in the same direction."

Liang watched as the two finally noticed one another. The larger, red-painted zombie ripped the arm from the other and used it to beat the blue-painted zombie into submission.

"Red wins!" The announcer called. "Next round, next round. Place your bets. Red, green, or blue! Who will win?"

The zombies were lead out and set into the ring. The blue-painted zombie looked they had died young of disease of some nature. It was thin, barely more than a skeleton with a skin suit on. The red-painted zombie was a farmer type. It looked as if he had a lot of muscle and was adjusted to doing several manual labor tasks. The green-painted one had the markings of an old blacksmith.

"I'd put my bets on blue." Liang said, tail twitching.

"No," said the drunkard. "Green. Bigger, stronger."

"But only used to doing a single task. The red one came from a farm. He may be smaller, but he would have more in his muscle memory. Farmers have to look after a few things on their farms. Feeding animals, repairs, shoeing horses, baling hay, driving carts, the list is endless. A blacksmith would be good at swinging and creating. Watch them. Place your money on red."

The man ignored him and put his two gold pieces on the green zombie. As predicted, the blue-painted zombie was taken out almost instantly. Its small frail body unable to withstand the assault from the two much stronger undead. The green rounded on the red and raised its arms to swing. The red, to the surprise of a few, defended itself and swung. In only a few rounds, the red zombie took the green's head off.

"Winner: red! All who placed their bets on red, come collect your winnings." The announcer handed out the coins to the people who had bet. Liang took the golden opportunity to thread his way through the crowd and _relieve _a few of the more obviously drunken attendees of their coin sacks. He turned, swiftly emptying the bags into his pockets. "Next round! Next round! Place your bets. Purple, orange, or yellow? Who will win?"

Liang observed the zombies again, curious. He saw that two of them this time, purple and yellow, looked sickly. Skinny bodies, hardly able to support their own weight. The orange one, however, was another former farmer.

"I'll put two coin on orange," he said, sliding two of the ill-gotten coins across the counter to the bookie. "Hey, halfling, wanna put the money down?"

"Why not?" He put two coins on the orange painted zombie.

"Hey."

"Oh, drunk friend. Are you betting?"

"I would...but I can't find my coins." He pat his sides. "Have you seen a tan sack with red stitching along the seams? The wife made it special and I do not want to go home without it."

"Sorry, no, I haven't seen any such bags. I'll keep my eyes out for you though." Liang swiftly moved the bag into the folds of his robes. The man clearly had not even noticed them there. Sezassus had, and was already plotting against the monkey. She rolled her eyes, but said nothing.

"Thanks. My whole month's pay was in that...100 gold pieces..."

"Yeah, right. I'll keep these peepers peeled." Liang went to the edge of the pit to watch the zombies battle it out. The fight only lasted about a minute, perhaps two, before the orange-colored undead was using the leg from the purple zombie to beat the yellow.

After a second or two more, only the orange zombie remained intact in the ring. It sniffed the air, looking around for the prize of fresh meats.

"Round end! Winner, orange!" The announcer grinned. "All those who bet on the orange zombie, come collect your winnings. Two-to-one! Come collect."

Liang went over and took the four coin from the bookie, "I think I'm done with this. It was fun for the first few times, but once you understand what sort of profession the fighters had when they were alive, it takes all the spark from it. It was sort of obvious that the orange zombie would win. Clearly the other two died of a coughing disease of some sort. Neither one stood a chance. I'm out."

He failed to notice when Sezassus snatched the coin purse from the side of his robes. Not that he would have cared, since it was now empty. He went out the front of the building, abandoning his tankard along the way.

"I think I'm gonna head to the local brothel. Make use of this coin. Sezassus, Kleine, are you coming?" Liang wondered idly for a moment where Fukushu had wandered off to, but then realized it didn't particularly matter. The nagaji was keeper of the scrolls, and while having the oni with them was good for combat, he wasn't completely necessary.

"Yeah. I'm in." Kleine had no idea who these people were, but he was very happy to take them up on offers they were just randomly doling out.

"Let's go."

* line *

They walked into the brothel and looked around. It was a nice place. Well kept from what Liang could see. He glanced at the various paintings on the walls. They were pretty expensive from what he could remember. His attention was captured by the brothel Madame, a rather stout woman.

"Welcome, welcome. We have pleasures of all sort here. From meek little mice to ravenous dogs. Prices differ based on what you would like. So, let me ask my friends, what will your pleasure be?"

"I will just take a common man. Please." Sezassus bat her lashes softly. She handed over her little coin and walked up the stairs to his room. "Enjoy your night, boys."

"That's one. And what will it be for you. I have some rather, extravagant, entertainers if that is what you like. I have some strange things. What will it be?"

"The weirder the better. I want the most unusual thing you have available."

"And you, Sir halfling?"

"I'm down for strange." He shrugged.

"Follow me then. We head to the night court." She lead them through the rear door and into another building. This one was made to look like a forest in the night. "Beware, my companions here are quite, ruthless. Ladies, gentlemen, there are customers here to meet you."

A low, almost baying could be heard coming from the trees. Slowly shapes began to emerge and take recognizable forms. There were six. Three male and three female. It took Liang quite a few seconds to realize what was off about them. They were all semi-shifted werewolves. Of the six, two had yellow-blond fur, two had red fur, and two had dark sable-black fur.

"You may chose up to three each."

"Oh!" Kleine tossed his coin toward the Madame. "I want that pretty red female."

"Any others?"

"Uh-uh." He took her hand and walked her off into the forest.

"For you?" She watched Liang. He was more discerning, taking his time to actually think about which ones he was after.

"Blond female, red male, brown male." He handed her his coin. "Come, doggies, time for a game of chase~" Before they had a full chance to register his words, he was springing up through the branches of the trees and across into the deeper part of the room. "Catch me if you can!"

* line *

They left the brothel, sated. Up ahead they could see something. Someone. It took a moment before they recognized Fukushu. Wearing only a towel.

"You know what I've always wondered?"

"Hmm?"

"What does an oni look like under their towel?"

"Let's find out..." Kleine laughed, and cast the spell Mage Hand on the towel. They were still just far enough away that it would work, but Fukushu would not know it was them. They nearly got it on the first go, but the samurai's reflexes were faster than their Mage Hand. He snatched the edge of the cloth before it could fall from his waist.

"Who is there?"

Giggling, they tried tugging harder and harder, until the towel fell. Revealing that the samurai was in fact a prude and just covering himself in his underwear.

"Well that was no fun...let's get back to the tavern or whatever. I'm tired." Liang walked off. He didn't know what was in store for them the next morning, and he wasn't really sure they were ready.


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: My apologies for taking so long to post the next chapter. We had a bit of a rough month with NaNoWriMo and stuff just going down. I hope to get the fourth chapter up soon. _

**Chapter 3**

The sun rose bright. Liang stretched and looked around. Sezassus and Fukushu were already gathering their belongings and packing to head out. He put his things away and looked around.

"Any last minute stops before we go?"

"If you have anything you wish to purchase before we go, now would be the time."

"Kay. I saw a smithy a little ways down the road. Back in a jiffy." Liang ran down the cobbled street to where he had vague memory of the shop being. "Hello? Anyone in?"

"Yeah? Can I help you?"

"I was hoping you could help me with my bracers. I think these only boost my defense a little. I'd like to boost them a little more if that's okay with you?" Liang pointed to his arms. He took off the bracer and handed it to the blacksmith. "Is there anything you can do for it?"

"Sure. Let me just take them for a few minutes. Maybe have a look 'round the forge, see if anything catches your fancy while I work."

"Okay." Liang would have looked around, had his attention not been caught by the halfling standing in the doorway. "Kleine? What are you doing over here?"

"I came to ask if you could use a magic caster for your journey? I see you have a lot of big, tough, punchy types...but rather a lack of people able to do magic and defend yourselves from attackers. I can do magic and I am itching for something to do with myself."

"I don't have a problem with you coming. Do Sezassus and Fukushu know?"

"I asked Fukushu and he just kind of grunted and walked away. I think that's his way of saying he doesn't care."

"Then I guess you're in. Do you have a mount of any kind? I could probably make room for you on my horse if you don't." Liang rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He didn't really ride his own horse so much as walk beside it and use it more as a pack animal. "Or we could see if the local stable has anything for sale."

"I'd sooner check the stables. The horses are a bit large for me," said Kleine. He turned away, hiding a soft blush on his cheeks. "I don't like being so high from the ground."

Liang grinned, "Stables it is. I'll be back over in a bit for my bracers!" He walked out and headed across to the local stable. He figured if anyone had anything for sale, it would be here. "Hello? I'm looking for the owner or head stable hand?"

"That would be me. What can I do for ye?"

"My friend here is wondering if you have any halfling appropriate mounts available for purchase."

"Let's see...we have two ponies, a miniature horse, and a dire goat."

"Dire goat. I want the dire goat."

"That'll be two hundred gold pieces." The owner held out his hand. Kleine dropped the gold right into it still in the sack and grinned. "Be careful now. She bites." He lead a large black and white nanny goat out from the furthest pen. Considerably larger than most goats, this one had been saddle trained and would happily take on riders, if they didn't mind a nip here and there.

"Thank you."

"Any time."

Liang barely remembered to head back and get his improved bracers before putting his things back on his horse and heading out. As they were leaving the city, he turned and noticed one of the saddle bags on Fukushu's horse, Uma, begin to lift slightly. At first he didn't understand and then his gaze flicked to Kleine, who was subtly casting Mage Hand again. The bag fell and the moment that Fukushu stood up in the saddle to find out what had happened, his trousers dropped.

"Who did that?! Monkey?!"

"It wasn't me! I'm over here and you know I can't do that sort of thing. I punch shit until it stops moving!" He raised his hands and tail in self defense. "What about the snake? Couldn't hissy have done it?"

"Not me. I do not possess magic of any nature." She shook her head, motioning toward the halfling. "It would have to be the wizard doing it. No one else in the party can even cast magic except him. He would have to be the one to do it."

Fukushu dismounted from his horse and stalked toward the halfling, drawing his sword. He shouted some unintelligible Abyssal gibberish before swinging it down on the halfling's head.

"Ha! You missed!" Kleine laughed, holding his stomach. "Oh no.."

"Miss? I never miss!" Fukushu swung upward with the flat of the blade, catching Kleine square in the chest. The hit sent his skeleton flying from his body to land a few feet away in a jumbled heap. "That's what you get for taking down my trousers, vile halfling."

"Shit! Fukushu just killed the halfling!"

"Ow. Hey! Don't do that." The skeleton stood, reassembling its structure and shaking the dirt and dust free. It started back toward the body that it had once inhabited. "Do you know how much these meat suits cost?"

Liang, in a state of confused panic, pulled a healing potion from his bag and tossed it in the general direction of the walking talking skeleton. He screamed when a fine smoke came from it as it yelled and collapsed into a heap.

"Holy hell...what the fuck was that? A halfling skeleton should not get up and walk around!" He looked between his other party members. "Anyway...now where are we going? South or west?"

"I believe west will be the better choice. It is but a four day journey to the city of Barthel. If we go the other way we will be on the road nearly a fortnight. The distance around like this," Sezassus drew a circle on the map with the tip of her finger, "is much shorter between each of the cities with a maximum of us being on the road for five or six days between these two in the south. Everything else is three or four days apart."

"Alright. We head that way then." Liang took the reins and walked his horse to the western road, still barely able to comprehend that he had just killed an undead halfling zombie something. His mind was reeling in shock. He had made it around twenty feet when he heard a light scuffling coming from behind them and he froze. "What was that?"

"G-guys...wait...f-for...me..."

Liang stiffened. It couldn't be. There was no way he was hearing the halfling. He didn't want to turn around. Didn't want to see the skeleton coming. The urge to check behind them was too strong to be ignored though, and he turned. There, dragging a dire goat with a body on it by the reins was in fact Kleine Schlang, the wizard.

"What the hell are you?!"

"Hmm? Oh...a lich." He paused, pulling the body down. "Can someone help me back in? These things are a bitch to get into. Like trying to slide into a very form fitting sleeping bag."

"Uh. Okay..." Liang picked up the skeleton by its spine and as gently as he could, put it back into the body. "Is there some sort of fastening I'm supposed to do?"

"Nah. That will sort itself out now that I've got my body on again. Anyway, name's Kleine Schlang, wizard of the dragonic order. Lich supreme...ish. Pleasure to meet you guys." He looked around the group. "So...where are we going?"

"Barthel. We have to deliver the plans for the underground passageway to the mayor's office." Sezassus said. She checked her map again. Fukushu ignored them all, keeping his horse pointed forward.

"Pardon me, but I couldn't help overhearing that you were on a mission to connect the cities?" A female voice broke through their conversation. The party paused, looking back. "Ah. Hello. My name is Faunalyn. I was at the tavern the night of the rat-brain-eating contest and I happened to overhear a few things. I would like to come along if you don't mind. This small town is doing nothing for my grand sense of adventure and you all could use more than one magic type."

"Oh. Uh welcome to the team I guess. It's a little late to go back. They've already shut the doors. What do you do?"

"Sorcery." She responded, tucking her hair behind her ear. Liang just nodded. That was great. Just perfect, a wizard and a sorcerer.

* * *

They rode for a good amount. Passing few villages and towns. Liang made note of the villages they were passing in case they would have to stop for the evening. He did not want to get caught out in the open at night when the Golems arrived.

They paused at one of the villages they passed, figuring on taking a quick break to rest the horses. The village wasn't large, seven or eight huts at the most with a well in the center of it. They stopped the horses at the well and looked into it.

"Think there's water in there?" Sezassus asked, peering down into the hole.

"Only one way to find out. Does anyone have any rope?"

"Who are we putting down there?" Liang asked, eyes flicking over to the halfling. He was curious as none of the rest of them would even fit into the hole. The only one who would be able to do it would be Kleine.

They found a small hut that was relatively intact, complete with a usable cooking pit. Fukushu inspected the pit. He lit a fire and was startled when the building started to fill with smoke.

"Forgot to open the flue did we?"

"The flue is switched to open. Something must be blocking it. Someone go look." He looked around the room. "Monkey. You can climb. Get up on the roof and see what is blocking the chimney."

"I have a name, you know!" Liang clambered up an old trellis in the rear of the building, mumbling insults the whole way. He walked along the edge of the roof, already seeing what looked like dried grasses sticking out. "Looks like something built a nest in here..."

"So get it out."

"My arms aren't long enough. Send me the halfling and some rope..."

"We are not putting the hatchling in the chimney! Use your staff."

"But I don't want to get my staff dirty..." Liang whined.

"Do it or I'll stuff you in there." Fukushu called from the window. "Just get it cleared, however you can."

"Fine, fine, whatever you want." He rolled his eyes, catching the staff as Kleine threw it up to him. Liang poked at the nest a few times, spying something dried that may have once had feathers. "Dead...bird thing...incoming!" He jammed the end of his staff directly downward onto the center of the pile. There was a little resistance at first, but then the entire mass came crashing down onto the fire in the grille, smothering it completely. "Oops. Well, chimney's clear."

"I see that, thank you."

"You're welcome. Can I get off the roof now?"

"Yes. You can. Get down here and find me a pot to put the water in that we found earlier." Fukushu pulled out one of the packs of trail rations that he had been given and picked it over for whatever would boil nicely. He pulled everything apart.

"Here." Kleine dug a cast iron pot out of his pack. He had been carrying it around from some project or other that he was doing.

* * *

"Did anyone hear that?"

"Not this again. The last time someone heard something we almost lost the snake. What do you hear now?"

"It honestly sounds like footsteps. I swear. I think I hear great, heavy footfalls out in the woods. I'm going to go check."

"Nooooo! Don't go check. That's how we get...and he's gone." Liang got down from his horse. His limited experience with this stupid journey taught him that if someone went to go investigate a thing, they were likely going to get into a fight somewhere along the way and he was not looking forward to that. He pulled his staff from the saddle pack and got ready. "Whelp...here we go."

He barely had the sentence out before Kleine came flying back up the trail as fast as his goat would trot. Not far off in the woods they could see a lumbering giant. Steam was coming from its body.

"Is that a fucking huge automaton?" Liang blanched. This was going to be bad. He picked up the staff and readied himself. Only it seemed as if the automaton hadn't seen them. He craned his neck to get a better look at the cart it was dragging and regretted that decision almost immediately. The cart was full of what looked like body parts. From all manner of creature. "We have to make a quick decision here. Are we gonna fight the thing or follow it? Not that I want to really get off 'quest', but that thing is collecting dead things. We can follow it back to its creator or whatever and put an end to whatever it is that's actually making the Golems in the first place. Or we can take the moderately safer route of just ignoring it and continuing on to Barthel."

"It would seem one decision has been made for us. It has noticed us from your chattering, monkey." Sezassus pointed. The automaton had turned its massive head toward them and was beginning to walk in their direction. "Prepare for battle."

Liang charged the mechanical construct and was caught up almost immediately caught up in its grasp, "Fuck me with a spoon...really? Can y'all get me out of here?"

"Coming up." Kleine laughed and cast the spell Grease on the automaton's hand. "Maybe you can wiggle out better?"

"I can try to wiggle out now." He grunted and started wriggling around in the Golem's grasp. It was futile, he was stuck there until someone made it let him go or he squeezed himself out. "No, this doesn't seem to be working any better than it did earlier. I hope I can get out."

"I believe I have a good plan." The elvish sorcerer grinned and cast fireball into the automaton's chest. Catching it off guard and causing it to let go of Liang. He dropped to the ground and scrambled backward hopefully out the way of it's grasp.

Kleine stepped back and had what he believed to be a brilliant idea. He picked up his dragon staff and slammed the end of it on the ground, there was a flash of bright light and where Kleine had been standing there was a large red dragon. "Got a plan. Probably a bad plan, but got a plan."

"Oh good, because I don't know what happened, but I'm back in this things hand, and I'm upside down. Someone help?" Liang hadn't even been doing anything that time. He had been sitting at the feet of the automaton just standing up and not getting into another fight with a beast he knew full well that he would not have a chance of beating. "Why does it like me so? Also ROAST MONKEY IS NOT GOOD."

Kleine roared loudly and sent a blast of flame into the head of the automaton. It staggered and let go of Liang, who took that opportune moment to just run as fast and as far from the beast as he could. It didn't work as well as he thought as he was grabbed a third time.

"You've got to be shitting me. Can someone distract this thing from me? I didn't even do anything to it. I was trying to go the other way! I didn't even attack! Help!" Liang wailed loudly.

"Hold on, I have an idea. Monkey, how flame retardant are you?"

"Uh...probably very much with this resistant grease on me. What are you planning?"

"I'm going to cast a fireball directly into it's torso. That should, in theory, cause it to drop you and you can get away. Are you ready?" Faunalyn raised her hands and mumbled something under her breath. A large glowing orb suddenly manifested itself into the center of the golem's chest. Surprised, it released it's hold on Liang again and staggered around, attempting to put out the fire that was now inside of it.

Kleine attacked it several times, attempting to knock it off it's feet. It was too sturdy for him. He didn't know what to do with it. He breathed a fireball into the head of the construct. They could see it was staggering around, barely standing at this point.

The construct, now realizing that the most dangerous of the creatures before it was the large red dragon, turned its attention to Kleine. It lifted its arm, preparing to launch an attack when a fireball hit it directly in the face. The automaton staggered a few more seconds and exploded in a shower of red hot gears and shrapnel.

Liang barely had enough time to get out of the way as a large piece of the behemoth fell nearly directly at his feet, "Holy crap. That is a lot of burning automaton. What are we going to do now? We can't exactly follow it into the woods any more. We've killed it pretty good."

"I suppose for now, since there is nothing we can really do, we should burn the corpses of the deceased in the cart and just continue on while the daylight is strong," Faunalyn said, weaving her way through the hunks toward the cart. "We can even use the convenient fire to do the burning."

They worked together to quickly amass the body parts into a pile, using the flame from the automaton to set the mass ablaze as a sort of funeral pyre. After the parts had burned somewhat sufficiently to not attract unwanted attention from scavengers, they buried them. The party turned to the road and started down again.

* * *

A few hours had passed. They saw village after village again. All abandoned, most crumbling. Just as the sun was beginning to set, they came across a large grain silo in an abandoned village.

"This looks like a good place to bunker down for the night. We can carefully remove a brick or two from each of the four directions and use them as lookout. I doubt we would attract too much attention from the aberrant Golems in here?" Liang checked around the edges of the silo. Everything seemed sound. "We also really don't need to do watches either. Kleine is a lich. Liches don't sleep...so he can be the night guard?"

"Works for me." Kleine shrugged.

"As you like. Now, I am going to prepare ration-soup. Kleine, do you still have the iron pot?" Fukushu took it from him and filled it with water from another local well. He made note of the shadows creeping closer through the forest as the light faded. The Golems, it would seem, were rather afraid of the sunlight. He made a note to attempt to figure out why that was. He was not sure if they would have an adverse reaction to the sunlight or if they were just magically instilled with an aversion to it.

He went back into the silo and started to make the soup the rest of the group had begun to enjoy over the standard textures. They ate their meal in relative silence.

Sezassus finished her meal first and decided to look around. She found on the side of the silo, there was a small ladder, that she promptly ignored as she climbed up the walls to see out from the top of the silo. She crawled out onto a walkway and looked around. The vantage was great, she could see a few hundred yards into the fields and forests around the silo. From there she could see a few Hounds and Golems moving along the side of the woods, moving out into the field as the sun went down.

She noticed something from the far side of the wood line. A significantly larger than the rest. The Golem had to be around thirty meters tall. Though she could see something circling its head. From there it looked there were birds tied to the top of the Golem. Sezassus could not contain her curiosity. She scaled down the outside of the silo and crept quietly along the border of the field, pausing now and then to remain unnoticed by the rest of the Golems and Hounds. She got close enough that she could see what it was. Attached to this golem's head were four cat sized bat-like lesser demons. The purpose of which still eluded her.

She froze when a branch cracked under foot. The four demons turned in her direction, and shortly the head of the large Golem followed behind. _It's almost like...it's using them for eyes. Why would it just not have eyes of it's own? _She thought. Sezassus carefully made her way back to the silo to tell the others what it was she had seen. As she was heading back, motion caught her attention from the side of the field. She could see the four-armed twenty five foot Golem making it's way through the brush. There was no wildlife in the area, so it was tearing trees and bushes from the ground and ripping them apart. She quickly moved back to the group to tell them what had occurred.


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: Sorry about the wait. We've had a small gap in actually playing the game, and then I managed to misplace, lose, and/or delete my notes from the last meeting. Anyway, I found the back half and this is what I have managed to scrape together from memory and asking the rest of the party. Hopefully chapter 5 is uploaded...soon...ish? I think that one will have a lot of us battling whatever is in the monastery! _

**Chapter 4**

Not much happened over the following two days of the journey. They watched the Golems tearing apart the forest at night and moving within the shadows during the day. They did not understand what was going on.

With almost half a day's journey left to go to get into Barthel and the sun swiftly setting on them, they made camp in an old stone farmhouse for the evening. They could once again see the Golems in the distance, tearing apart the flora. They had finally figured out that they were more or less programmed to destroy living animals, however, there were no living animals to tear up, they were resorting to the nearest living beings to it. Trees and bushes.

"Does anyone else see that?"

"What?" Liang blinked, turning to Faunalyn. "I hate when people ask me if I see or hear something. Those are never good omens here. What is it we see now? A Golem shaped like a bear?"

"No...it's..." she squinted at the skyline, "a bird? A very large bird. It doesn't seem to be getting the attention of the two giant Golems. I think I will send Zaji out to see if it can speak to this large bird."

"What does it look like?"

"A falcon. Only it appears to be have a twelve foot wingspan. I do not know of any falcons with a wingspan of that size."

"There are none. Not here, not anywhere."

"Perhaps it's a forest spirit of the woods to our southeast?" Liang scratched the back of his head. Forest spirits were not all that uncommon in his homeland, so he figured it would be quite likely that there was one out here in the country. He looked up at the falcon, as the hawk went to talk to it.

"I'm getting a response back. The falcon says 'I am more than fair weather.' What on earth does that mean?" Faunalyn blinked, looking around the party.

"It is a forest spirit. I was right. Ask what they want."

"'Friend is needed, assistance will be rewarded.' Translate that."

"He wants our help. He'll give us a boon for doing some quest or other for him." Liang blinked. He watched the hawk and spirit come toward the farmhouse. The hawk dove in through the window and landed back with Faunalyn. He ducked out of the way when the large falcon-spirit followed suit, nearly crashing into the other people in the room. He didn't really know what was happening, but he wanted to be out of the way when the large bird landed.

There was a flash of bright blueish-white light and where the falcon had landed was a man with the attributes of a deer. There was a fine blue light emanating from the spirit's body.

"Uh, hello." Liang said.

"Greetings." The spirit dipped its head politely. "I have come seeking aide. My name is Lumen. You are fond of your world as it is, yes? There is not much time left to enjoy it. There is but one solar cycle remaining until the land can no longer support life. She is dying, and I cannot stop it. My fellow spirits and I are unable to do more. It is up to you now. I ask for the sake of this world and all in it, that you stop the creature responsible for creating these beasts and losing them on the land."

"When do you want us to do this?"

"Immediately."

"It is one o'clock in the morning. I am not doing anything." Liang grunted. "We also have to finish our task that we were given from the mayor of Valkinas...can we at least get say, twenty four hours? So we can drop off the papers in Barthel, resupply our packs and then we will do whatever you want. By the way, what do you want us to do exactly?"

Lumen's gaze stayed firmly on the Vanara, "I wish you to go into the Dark Forest and find the person or beast responsible for these abominations. I will give you each a boon to help you on your mission for me."

Sezassus pulled the map out of her pack and pulled her party members into a circle. She looked at the journey ahead of them. It would take them a little while longer than she really liked, but it was definitely manageable.

"If we go all the way to Barthel and finish there...then we just go backward to Larkas, we can take the southern road into the forest." She pointed at the roads. "Should we just follow the road to the crossroad, then if we don't find what we want, we head to Lorrinth. Backtrack our way to the center and then down to Nidolen."

"Then we just continue on the road back again through Dalben and Sabaku to finish our original quest." Fukushu nodded over the map. "Seems like a good plan to me."

"Right?" Liang flicked his tail. It would certainly work. They would be able to do both missions at the same time. "So, we have twenty four hours to go to Barthel, deliver the map and instructions to their mayor, resupply our packs, sleep in a working inn, then the next morning we go back to Larkas?"

"Correct."

"I shall give you one last piece of information. You will find what you seek at the peak of the highest mountains." Lumen snapped his fingers and there was a rush of feathers as the large falcon disappeared through the window, heading back above the Golems.

"Hey! Wait a minute! Where's the stuff?"

"What stuff?" Faunalyn asked.

Liang pointed out the window, "Lumen totally just ripped us off. He said he was going to give us stuff to help with the new task. I see no stuff. Everyone, check your bags." He started rifling through his saddle bags. At first he saw nothing. On the third pass of actually dumping out the bags he noticed a moderately sized soft leather bag. He opened it and looked inside. In the bag were...beans. Liang poked at them a few times. They looked like a standard bean. White to tan with little brown and black specks all over them. "What the fuck do I do with a bag of beans?"

"What do I do with the stick? I'm not a wizard. I don't use wands." Sezassus held up a wand that was suddenly poking from her bags. "I don't even know what it's a wand of."

"You got a wand? I got a ring of bureaucracy. It will create and sign forms for me in triplicate. I wonder what sort of use that will have?" Faunalyn blinked, looking at the simple silver ring. It was unusual.

"I got bone chips." Kleine looked into the bag. "Hold on, I think I can figure out what these are for. Identify!" He focused hard on the bag. The magic around them registered as bone tree seeds. If he were to plant the seeds, a large tree would sprout from the area made entirely of bone matter.

"Can you identify my beans?"

Kleine took the bag from him and cast the spell, "They are people beans. You plant them and it will grow a monster that will attack. I'm not sure if you will be able to control it or if it will be a mindless attacking machine. Also, the beans will have to be removed from the pouch with the hand of a humanoid creature or bad things will happen."

"What sort of bad things?"

"I don't know. We'd have to have a non-humanoid take the beans from the bag to find out."

"What do I have?" Fukushu discovered a large cotton sack filled with a purple powder. It vaguely resembled flour to them, but no flour that they had ever seen. He dipped a finger into it and put it into his mouth. "I know that it is not any form of powdered drug at the very least, however I do not know what it is."

"Give it here." Kleine took the powder and cast the identify spell one last time. "It's food powder." He handed the bag back. "I suggest the rest of you go to sleep unless you don't want to be awake for the journey in the morning into Barthel."

The party agreed. They sorted out who was sleeping where and bedded down for the night. It was mostly quiet. Kleine saw the Golems going about the same routine they had been doing on the other nights of the journey. The ground was destroyed, animal skeletons and forest torn asunder by the larger Golems while the smaller ones seemingly kept watch of what was happening.

Fukushu woke first. He dug out a pack of trail rations from Guanyu's supplies and started preparing it. Curious, he sprinkled a small amount of the purple powder onto it. Suddenly he could smell a hot tavern breakfast. Fat, sizzling sausages, eggs, toast with butter and marmalade. He couldn't see any of it. It unnerved him to smell something he couldn't see. Fukushu looked at the cooking trail rations and then up as the rest of the party slowly came around to the smell of a good breakfast.

"What have you got going there, Fukushu? Sausages?" Liang stretched his hands over his head and his tail out behind him. "Smells amazing, whatever it is."

"Trail rations."

"If you say so."

They doled out breakfast among themselves and ate quickly, wanting to be on the road as fast as they could muster. Breakfast ended near as fast as it started, everyone satisfied with something that didn't taste like trail rations. They packed their horses and goat and made their way out onto the main road.

* * *

They traveled for approximately an hour and a half before coming to the gates of the city. Sezassus was already ready to go with the papers out of her pack. She trot to the guard station and held up the papers.

"We ask entrance to your city. We are here on a mission from the Valkinian mayoral office and from Lumen, Spirit of the Forest."

"Lumen? You can't mean the Guardian, Lumen. That's just a folk tale that we tell to children. Lumen isn't real."

"I wouldn't tell him that if I were you." Liang shrugged. "Seemed pretty real to me last night when he came flying into the farmhouse."

The guards scrutinized them for a moment longer before opening the gates. These people were either absolutely truthful and on a divine mission or they were sick in the head and would need to see the healer in the center of the city. Either way they would have to be let in.

"Thank you," Faunalyn said, guiding her horse into the city and looking around. Barthel was larger than Larkas had been, not by much though. She could easily tell which parts of the city they would likely be going to. "I am heading to the nearest market, who is with me?"

"Me," said Liang, turning his horse to follow her down the path to the marketplace. He walked alongside the beast, examining the wares out on the tables. A ring caught his attention. Guanyu picked it up and turned it in his hands a few times. "Sir, what sort of ring is this?"

"That would be a ring of sustenance. Makes it so you won't have to eat or drink at all and you only need to sleep for a wee bit." The merchant smiled. "For you sir, only two thousand five hundred."

"Two thousand five hundred what? Silver coins? Copper? Gold? Platinum?"

"Ah." The smile grew. He could possibly fleece this little monkey for all his coin. "Platinum, sir. Two thousand five hundred platinum pieces."

"For that? Do you think I'm stupid? It couldn't be worth more than three thousand gold pieces." Guanyu mumbled and tossed the ring back onto the table. He wandered to the next stall, finding another set of rings. He checked them out, and eventually purchased a ring of sustenance for himself at full market value. He didn't have much else he would spend his money on. Liang also picked up a Meridian belt. He was pleased with his purchases, putting the rest of his gold into a leather sack tucked into his robes.

* * *

Liang met back up with the party as they made it to the magistrate's office. He watched Sezassus hand over the documents and accept the coin and vouchers for an in called The Hero's Axe. He thought it sounded like an interesting inn name. They walked down the path toward the inn and found a rather ornate, beautiful looking building. Liang went in, looking around at the fine tapestries that were lining the wall, entirely oblivious the looks they were getting from the patrons of the bar. He sidled right up to the bar.

"'Scuse me, who owns this fine establishment?" He looked around the bar. A stout Dwarven woman came forward. Liang took an involuntary half-step backward. This woman looked like she meant business. He could tell from the way she carried herself that at some point in her life she was a warrior, likely an adventurer like they were.

"That'd be me. Arag's the name." She gave them a cursory glance, not used to a talking monkey. "What brings you out here to Barthel? None of you look like you belong here."

"The golems." Fukushu turned and stalked to an empty table, causing the chatter in the bar to drop to almost a quiet hush. He didn't say anything more.

Liang rolled his eyes, "We were sent on a mission from Valkinas to bring maps and stuff to each of the...six...remaining citadels. We've already been to Larkas. Now we're here in Barthel. The mayor gave us these. They should be good for a night's stay in your inn and a hot meal." He handed over the voucher. "Could we just all have a mug of ale and whatever the meal of the night is? Thank you."

The others had followed Fukushu toward the tables, Kleine pausing to adjust his skin suit which had come loose during the ride. They sat and chatted among themselves, the map pulled out between them.

Liang joined them back at the table, just as what appeared to him to be a tall Elven warrior of some sort or other, hunter perhaps, strode to their table. He watched as the elf went straight up to Faunalyn and cleared his throat.

"Pardon me..."

"Yes?" She lifted her gaze from the map and looked at the warrior. "Can I help you with something?"

"I have your meals. Arag asked me to deliver them to you." He mumbled in elven, keeping to himself. The rest of the party members looked at him with confusion as he avoided their gaze and practically ran back to the bar where he had been sitting. Faunalyn felt paper brush up against her finger tips. Something was adhered to the backside of the tray.

Curious, she pulled the little piece of paper from it and unfolded it on into her hand. _Elven Maiden – Are you in any danger? Have these ruffians abducted you from your village? Please alert myself and my party if you require our assistance._ She blinked down at the note, written in a dialect of Elven that she was not at all familiar with. There was just enough similarity to her own language that she could read it and understand.

Faunalyn turned and held out the paper to the rest of the party, "Do you believe this?"

"Hmmm?" Liang and Sezassus leaned over the paper. "What on earth kind of Elven is this? I've never seen such strange script in my life."

"I do believe they think we've kidnapped you. More like you've kidnapped us, though." Kleine laughed, looking at the paper. He couldn't read Elven, but the gist of the note was enough to get him a rough understanding of what was being said.

Faunalyn crumpled the note and tossed it back onto the table, sending a challenging glare toward the bar where the other elf was sitting. She didn't need or want his help. Especially if he was going to debase her so by just assuming that the rest of her party had taken her from her home.

"Since we are staying here the entire night, mind if I go off on a mission? I have some things to do for my clan that I wanna see about here." Liang shifted on the seat. He hadn't told anyone why he was originally even on this journey. What had happened that he was sent out of the forest clan he lived in.

Sezassus tilted her reptilian head, "What sort of mission might that be, monkey?"

He pulled the amulet from his shirt and held it out for them to see, "See this? It's an Amulet of Mighty Fists. Got it at a monastery back in Tian Xia. Not exactly in a legal way. There wasn't supposed to be anyone in the monastery when I broke in. They were all meant to be off doing their prayer or whatever it is they do at that time of night. I didn't know they'd left behind a guard.

"So, when I got in, and had the amulet in my hand, I was surprised by a guard. We got into a fight. With the amulet, my strength was increased by a fair amount and I ended up killing him by accident. Destroyed the sanctuary in the process. Of course I went right to the the clan leader and admitted what I did. It had been an accident after all. As penance for that, I had to join the order of the monks and am on a 'sacred' mission to find the four great relics of my ancestor, Sun Wukong. There is rumor abounding in the clan that we are of his blood."

His gaze swept the party.

"So you're telling us that this entire time, you've had an ulterior motive?" Kleine laughed, watching the Vanara from over his mug.

"Not so much an ulterior motive. I've just been doing that alongside what you guys have been. Trust me, I want the golems gone as much as the next guy. It would be so much easier to go about my family quest with them out of the way."

"Well, let's see if we can't find anything here that would help." Faunalyn stood, brushing past them and heading up to the bar. "Pardon me, Arag was it? I have a question. Do you know of any monasteries in the area? Especially any that would have followed the ways of the monks from Tian Xia?"

Arag put down the glass she was cleaning and turned her full attention to the elf. She heaved a deep sigh, looking her directly in the eye, "Just the one, but you don't want to go there. Rumor is it's haunted by ghosts. Knocks sounding at night. People stay clear of that place."

"Could you tell me where it is?"

"You sure you're up to this?"

"We've battled four-armed giant flesh constructs all the way here. I think we can handle a few measly spirits in an old monastery."

"Right then. You're funeral. Head up the main pathway until you see a retaining wall. Make a left there. It will be the fourth building. All the way at the end. You can't miss it. Sticks out like a sore thumb with all of it's Xianese design."

She dipped her head and left a gold piece on the counter. Faunalyn motioned for the others and they stood, taking up their gear and walking from the bar. She lead them in the direction of the monastery.


End file.
